Love – Week 15

I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him, too. And tonight, when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.

-Gale Sayers

For an in-depth overview of each weekly slide presentation, please skip below to your specific grade level.

• To see the 1-page Love Character Card and share it with your students’ families, click here.

• For the P2 Reflection Journals, used by all elementary students at the end of the week, click here.

Starting Monday, Partner Schools nationwide will begin learning about the character strength of love. Love represents the way we think, feel, and behave towards the people with whom we have close relationships. When one person loves another person, that person: comforts and makes the other feel safe; sacrifices on the other’s behalf; supports the other during struggles; and places the other’s needs ahead of his/her own. If you love a person, that person makes you feel safe and secure. You can be yourself with that person. You miss that person when he/she is not around.

Positive psychology looks at love as reciprocal, not one-sided. That means crushes, stalking, and celebrity worship do not fall into this strength. What is contained in this strength are: romantic love and friendship; love between parents and children; and emotional bonds between family members, friends, mentors, teammates, or coworkers.

Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo serve as this week’s character strength example. The Chicago Bears’ football players formed a strong bond with each other that transcended the game. During the 1960s, because of their friendship, they decided to be roommates on the road — breaking with traditional preclusions against interracial roommates. And, as the below speech from Brian’s Song, the movie about their friendship, exemplifies, they loved each other.

So, why does love matter? Love is imperative to an individual’s happiness and fulfillment in life. Love allows us to be intimate with another person. It allows us to open up to another person and be vulnerable. That openness gives us the ability to learn and grow. Loving another person and sacrificing on his/her behalf produces positive emotions. And, it helps you access strengths – and feelings – you never knew you had.

On a group level, love is vital for the well being of society. The world is endlessly interconnected. We are all dependent upon each other for survival and happiness. Love produces positive feelings, which help negate loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Without love, we cannot find intimacy nor form strong relationships with our families, friends, or communities. A world without love and connection is a dangerous world.

And, as a reminder, you can find all of our weekly slide presentations on our website’s Resources page. Enjoy the slides — and please be sure to let us know how it’s going by posting to Twitter and using the #PositivityInAction hashtag!